Milan – on Wednesday, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron win Olympic gold medals In the ice dance, narrowly Overcame heavy favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates United States – and turmoil remains over the outcome.
Both teams recorded their season best scores in the free dance, but ultimately Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron defeated Chock and Bates by 1.43 points after both nights of competition. Chalk and Bates, the three-time defending world champions, were clearly disappointed after the scores were announced and were emotional during the podium ceremony and during their media obligations later in the evening. Bates called their event their “gold medal performance” and both said they were proud of what they accomplished on the ice.
Although Chock and Bates remained gracious when asked about the contest’s decision, the results were met with sharp reaction – and Conversation about inconsistencies and potential unfairness.
Here’s everything you need to know about the decision-making anomalies and other controversies surrounding the French team.
Why do people believe the outcome was unfair?
After Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron earned the highest scores in the rhythm dance section on Monday, despite some obvious synchronization issues on their twizzle and a clean skate from Chock and Bates, there was already debate about possible bias.
However, after the free dance it went into hyperdrive as errors began to appear again in Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron’s twizzle. Chalk and Bates, on the other hand, had no such problems, and again had almost flawless execution of their twizzle and all the elements.
While many judges raised questions of partisanship and even nationalism, it was the French judges who really attracted attention. The judge, Isabelle Dubois, gave Chalk and Bates’ free dance a score of 129.74 – the lowest score out of all nine judges on the panel and five points below the average. Dubois gave Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron a score of 137.45, almost three points higher than the panel’s average score.
The same judges raised eyebrows when judging both pairs at the Grand Prix Final in December, and only gave the Americans a slight edge despite several errors and falls from Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron.
While Dubois’ scoring was perhaps the most obvious and consequential, the Italian judge was also angered for giving a questionable score to top Italian pair Marco Fabbri and Charlene Guignard despite an error. The Italian judge was the only one of the nine judges to place him in the top three.
Who has spoken about this?
Chalk and Bates’ reaction has been measured, but both have stated multiple times that they felt they skated at their highest level and did everything they could.
Bates said on NBC after the contest, “I feel like life is like that… sometimes you can feel like you’re doing everything right and it’s not going your way, and that’s life and that’s sports.” “And it’s a subjective game. It’s a decisive game. But I think the one fact that’s indisputable is that we played our best, we skated our best, we played our season best almost every time. And the rest is not up to us.”
In an interview with CBS on Thursday, Chalk said he believed judges should be “tested.”
He said, “There is a lot at stake for the skaters when they are giving their all and we deserve that the judges also give us their all and that it is a fair and level playing field.”
In another interview, he said that such confusion about results is “detrimental to our sport.”
Others have been even more vocal about their feelings. Even Fabbri, who missed the podium with Guignard, made his feelings clear after the event.
“I generally like Laurence and Guillaume,” Fabbri told reporters. “But tonight, Chalk and Bates deserved it [the gold medal]”
Guignard said he agreed. Fellow American ice dancer Emilia Zingas, who finished fifth with her partner Vadim Kolesnik, expressed a similar sentiment while speaking to the media.
“I thought he skated great today,” he said. “It’s disappointing for me that they didn’t get the gold, but they’re my favorites. If it were my gold to give away, I’d give it to them.”
A fan petition has since been created on Change.org urging the International Skating Union to investigate. At the time of this writing it has over 15,000 signatures.
Absolutely beautiful. This is what 15 years of skating looks like together. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UQhpVEBB90
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) 11 February 2026
Has the ISU responded?
ISU issued a statement While defending the scoring on Friday.
“It is normal for any panel to have a range of scores given by different judges and a number of mechanisms are used to minimize these variations,” the ISU said.
The organization said it had “full confidence in the scores awarded and is fully committed to fairness.”
Who are Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron?
The French couple at the center of all this is not untouched by controversies.
Fournier Beaudry previously represented Canada with Nikolaj Sorensen, who is also her romantic partner, after he was suspended from the sport for six years following sexual assault allegations. He has publicly expressed his support towards him. The suspension was revoked in June on jurisdictional grounds, but the case is still pending.
Cizeron won Olympic gold in 2022 with his partner Gabriella Papadakis. She has since retired, as she initially did, and released a book this year calling him “controlling” and “demanding.” Cizeron has said that Papadakis’ book and his allegations were a “slander campaign” and has denied the claims.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron announced last year that they were teaming up – after much vetting – and are in their first season together. Fournier Beaudry received French citizenship in November. The pair won two Grand Prix titles and the European Championships before coming to the Olympics – an unusual run of success for such a new pair.
He trains at Montreal’s Ice Academy with Chalk and Bates. Both teams work with the same coaches: Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer. Chalk said he was “blindsided” by Cizeron’s return to the game and the training facility, as well as the new partnership.
“I think he told us the day before we officially started training, and it was a lot to digest at first,” Bates told NBC before the Olympics.
Olympic gold for Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/fBHi3cjErQ
– Embassy of France in the US (@franceintheus) 12 February 2026
Have there been any other problems with decision making in ice dancing?
Yes. Two-time world runners-up Piper Giles and Paul Porier, who earned bronze medals on Wednesday, have openly questioned scoring inconsistencies throughout the season.
Giles criticized the technical panel at the Grand Prix event in Finland in November, and he later posted on social media about his frustration with the judging at the Grand Prix Final the following month. He wrote that many people in the sport “are being undermined and manipulated by people with agendas,” and he tagged the International Skating Union.
Even Cizeron expressed his displeasure at the same Grand Prix event in Finland.
“Of course I’m angry,” Cesarone said at a news conference. “I’m seeing some weird games being played that are destroying ice dancing. From a judging standpoint, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a competition like this in my career.”
There are certainly other famous examples in figure skating overall. Perhaps the most famous case involved a French judge.
During the 2002 Olympics, Russian pair skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal over Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. However, allegations of vote swapping and selling against French judge Marie-Reine Le Goigne quickly emerged and resulted in an investigation by the ISU. He was found guilty and suspended. Sale and Pelletier were eventually elevated to gold.
